The Power Of Just Turning Up

Imagine if you got paid just for turning up to work. Imagine if you arrived at the office, sat down, cashed your cheque, and that was the end of your obligations for the day. The good news is that it’s not too far from the truth. The bad news is that it has consequences.

Same with your fitness.

It’s true, you get a paycheque for just turning up to work. This is your one true commitment to your boss. Sure, in future progress meetings your performance is measured to determine whether you continue to have your job, but let’s entertain the thought that you are free to spend the rest of your day as you wish.

You see, your boss knows something about you that you haven’t considered. They know that there is a power of just turning up. Imagine if you had the choice whether you wanted to go to work or not. You could go to work for 8 hours or stay at home and watch Netflix and chill … by yourself. Either way you’d still get paid.

You would likely never go to work again. And I’d imagine that probably wouldn’t work out too well for the business that hired you either. But if your only obligation was to turn up at the office, you’re more than likely to stay and just do the work. After all, you’re up now and have arrived at the office with pants on, it seems a bit silly to do all of this only to go back home, doesn’t it? At the end of the day, a whole bunch of work gets done. Just because you turned up. And Netflix stocks plummet.

Yes, there are flaws in my argument. “If I just leave at 9:01am every day, I will lose my job in a matter of days.” And, “I need my job to earn money to live.” But the thing is you don’t need a job to stay alive. Just like you don’t need any particular level of fitness to keep your heart beat going. Plenty of people do without either or both. But it sure makes your life a lot more comfortable.

Like work, there is a power to just turning up to your fitness obligations too. Instead of thinking, “I need to go to the gym today,” or, “I need to go for a run,” try changing your perspective. The thought of the entire workout process, (like the thought of an entire day at work), can convince anyone that they’re not going to enjoy it before they’ve even started. Instead say, “I need to walk into the gym today,” or, “I need to put on my running shoes on the front door step.”

There are no obligations after this. You can walk right back out of that gym, or take those shoes off again and head inside, but you might be surprised. You might find yourself thinking, “I’ve gone through the effort of getting this far, I might as well do this exercise thing.”

The thing that’s stopping you from exercising is the exact same thing that stops you from chasing your dreams, making that important phone call you’ve been dreading to make, or asking your crush out on a date. The actions are quite simple, but the fear and apprehension is taken out of perspective and stops you dead in your tracks. Just by taking the very first step, you are actually over halfway there, because following through is even easier than turning up.